Looper
by chaos-entropy
Summary: In the future, the Shinra Company are going to discover time travel. Among its many applications is the erasure of undesirables by throwing them into the past for a present-day assassin known as a Looper to take care of. That's Reno's job, and he's very good at it. But what happens when his future self is sent back, and escapes his grasp? Looper (2013, dir. Rian Johnson) crossover.


Fifteen years into the future, the Shinra Electric Power Company's scientific research team are going to discover a way to make time travel work for them. Some time also in the future, it is going to be kept such a secret that only those who work in the upper echelons of Shinra know about it. The SOLDIERs, the Turks, the heads of department. Those kinds of people.

But me? I'm in the present. Meaning that I am in fact one of the people privy to the information on the time machines that are going to be used in the future. Officially, I'm a Turk – carrying out black ops for Shinra. Spying, kidnapping, the occasional assassination. Seemed to be something I was good at. When that recruitment agent showed up in the interrogation room where my hands were cuffed tight to the underside of the table to prevent me from slipping out of them... I suppose I tried to turn over a new leaf.

Of course, that's all in the past. Back then, I was a snotty kid, a runaway from a bad family who weren't going to miss me. When I got on the train to the slums, I learned to live for myself. Use my talents as something that could make me as much money as possible. When you grow up with nothing, your possessions become everything to you. I've stashed a lot of Gil doing this job.

I'm currently stood in the middle of a wasteland just outside of Midgar. Now, Shinra in the future have a fairly decent way of going about things. It's a little less messy for their batch of Turks, I guess. All the future Turks have to do is bag, tag, and shove the poor bastard into the past. They can be from that ecological terrorist group AVALANCHE, or just some drone who left the company and let slip some things the public are never supposed to know about.

I'm carrying a pretty nice weapon here. It'll be the last thing the person from the future ever sees. That is, if they _can _see through the burlap. Shinra's done well for itself – a company that's gone from producing weaponry to producing electricity and dominating most of the world. They're still fighting that war in Wutai, but it's just a matter of time.

I'm a Turk, but I'm also what is called a Looper. Shinra of the future sends people into the past. I put a bullet through their head the moment they materialize. This gets rid of any problematic elements for Shinra of the future, and allows them to continue with their prosperity. Or whatever's happening to them. I don't know.

There are two things to do to a body. Sometimes there's a directive in place to stun them and then drive into Midgar, depositing them at a secret location for SOLDIER training. Most of the time, they just dissipate into the Lifestream. Fine by me.

I hold the gun tightly. It's not like this sort of weapon requires any training. It's referred to as a 'blunderbuss'. Some kind of historical term for a gun that any old Joe could use. It shoots a huge blast, with quite a bit of kickback. I'm roughly eight feet away from the target, and I never miss my mark.

I haven't been told much about my target today. It's generally better that we don't know their names or backgrounds. Those of us with softer hearts may wind up going against company orders.

Though there are occasional circumstances where you know _everything _about your target.

Sometimes, Shinra see fit to 'close the loop.' That's where the guys in the future capture your older self, and shove them back through time, like any old target for the Loopers to take care of. It's a polite way for Shinra to tell you that you aren't needed any longer. You basically destroy your own lifespan. So if you're a 25 year old Looper, and Shinra closes the loop on you, you're going to die at the grand old age of 35. It's not like the people who'd take on this job are the kind to have a wonderful future laid out for them. We Turks – especially those of us who are Loopers – are a messed up bag of everything from rich kids to poor kids to talented kids from nice parents, who've been told by Shinra to essentially forget about their offspring. Even burning family photo albums and firmly telling the neighbors not to ask after the kid any more. I kind of fell into the orphan category. I say "self-made orphan," which makes me some like somebody who's not to be messed with. Only my partner Rude – and you, dear reader – know that I'm just a runaway from a troubled family background. Nothing more, nothing less.

I check my watch again. Still got two and a half minutes to go. The pocket watch I carry is something I bought with my first round of pay checks. It's flashy, and I figured I deserved to go around with something that outwardly stated: "Yes, Reno has made it in life." It's a shining silver, and it automatically sets itself to the right time. There's a tiny compass in it too, which comes in handy when Shinra just gives you map co-ordinates for the next target. I'm here, right where X marks the spot.

Every dime I earn is still hoarded, though. Secret place in my apartment back in Midgar. Never trusted banks since I was living in the slums – not with the exorbitant interest rates they'll charge you. The loan sharks who run those little unofficial banks and pawn shops are pretty serious about their work. I've probably still got that debt to settle with the one who set fire to my wooden shelter beneath that railway bridge. How old even was I back then? Probably fifteen.

I'm pretty quick on the draw. I practice slipping the blunderbuss out of its holster, twirling in it one hand while I wait for those precious seconds to tick down. Poor bastard from the future is probably being shoved into the time machine right about now. Like a circus guy being shoved into one of those cannons, sailing through the ether until he arrives precisely where he was supposed to land.

Sometimes you get the temptation to look beneath that burlap sack, when the target arrives. I never have done. When Shinra in the future send back the person who needs to be killed, they normally have about a million Gil (which they make sure wasn't minted fifteen years from where I am) sewn into the back of their jacket. I take this money, tip my head, and just dump the body in the back of the truck or chopper. But when Shinra in the future want to close your loop... you get a whole load of gold bullion instead.

Makes sense to me. The exchange is almost polite. It's a passive way of telling you that they're done with your services, and you can go on to do whatever the hell you like in life. Shame your lifespan's been reduced, but at least you'll be sipping cocktails in Mideel when future Shinra's goons come and grab you.

The way I see it, I've cheated death enough times to worry about that sort of thing. If my lifespan's reduced, so be it. Technically, your lifespan's reduced nearly every damn day. You could cross a road hundreds of times, not knowing that if you'd arrived at the crossing a minute earlier, some car would come careening around the corner and slam right into you. Little incidences like that. I'm not ready to rot in the Lifestream quite yet, so I'm enjoying myself while it lasts.

Speaking of mortality, though, my target's just arrived.

BANG.


End file.
